The Apple iPhone 5c was announced on September 10, 2013. Repair of this device is similar to the previous models, and requires screwdrivers and prying tools. Available as GSM or CDMA / 8, 16, 32 GB / White, Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Green.

iPhone5C charging port fault

the charging port on my iPhone 5C is faulty. The symptoms is the phone will not switch on or show any signs of life. I opened the phone, lifted the screen and I removed the battery plug. I put a voltmeter across it and this read 0V. I then connected the phone charger and switched it on then put a voltmeter across the pins in the socket that takes the battery plug and this also read 0V. From this I assumed that there is no voltage reaching the battery socket to charge the battery or switch the phone on. and this can only be that the charging port is faulty and needs replacing.

have I made the correct assessment? Is there anything else that maybe responsible for the voltage not reaching the battery socket? Phone Charger is in full working order as it charges my iPad and another iPhone.

Ok thank you. I have bought the charging port replacement. And I will fit it as soon as I get it.

But I thought maybe I can use it as a test port before doing the replacement. So which bits do I need to connect to the phone just to do the power /voltage test? Is it just the plug that goes into the socket next to the battery socket and the single long wire that fits next to the battery socket? Or do I need to connect anything else?

I thought all the other stuff is to do with speaker and headphone jack and so on....

You can just plug in the main connection of the new charging port and plug a lightning cable into it to test. Almost all components run through this one connector. If you still don't get any signs of life then either you have a defective part, or the u2 IC chip has failed and will require a logic board specialist.

I find the most common cause for the failure of this chip is the use of cheap aftermarket lightning cables.

Yep the non MFi certified cables dont have voltage protection meaning that any fluctuations in voltage going through the cable to the phone is not regulated and can damage the Tristar U2 charging IC if it goes too high.

The combination of a car charger and a non Mfi certified cable is the worst scenario as you know car batteries and their power fluctuate a lot due to the car battery getting recharged when the car is on.

As the charging port was not passing the voltage to charge the battery, I bought an iPhone battery activation/charging board. I connected the battery to it and charged the battery to almost full. . I then connected the battery to the phone. And it switched on. The phone now works. I then connected the phone charger to the charging port of the phone and it started charging the battery. So now everything on the phone is working.... so why there was no voltage at the battery socket before and why there is voltage there now?

Ok thank you. I have bought the charging port replacement. And I will fit it as soon as I get it.

But I thought maybe I can use it as a test port before doing the replacement. So which bits do I need to connect to the phone just to do the power /voltage test? Is it just the plug that goes into the socket next to the battery socket and the single long wire that fits next to the battery socket? Or do I need to connect anything else?

I thought all the other stuff is to do with speaker and headphone jack and so on....

Don't have the screen or battery plugged in, only the charging port. Plug the charger to the phone. Measure the voltage from the battery connector on the logic board, positive / negative and I think should be like 4.5V (Not really sure)? If it's like 0v then I think it's probably the charging IC not allowing power going to the battery connector.

I could be wrong though you may need to have a battery installed and instead use one of those USB voltage current detector tester dongle thingies.

Either way the phone should turn on even with a faulty charging IC chip if the battery has enough charge like 3.7v-4.2v.

Having the battery externally charged by a apple battery fast charging activation test fixture or another phone works so that you can get it charged enough to get the affected phone to turn on.

One other question. Which is the positive and which is the negative battery terminal. Please advice for the battery plug and/or the socket on the board. Maybe I can also charge the battery by connecting it with wires to an external battery charger. I can use an old phone charger say a 7v. But I need to know how to connect it. I couldn't see any markings on the battery or the socket that is on the board.

I got the new cable. I connected just the charging port to the phone without removing the old one. I connected the new cable to the phone charger. I connected the battery plug into the socket and left it charging for 2 hours. I then switched off the charger and unplugged the battery from the phone socket and put a voltmeter across it. It read zero. I then switched the charger back on and put a voltmeter across the battery plug socket on the phone board and there was no voltage.

I assume the new charging port cable is working and is passing the voltage to the board via the charging socket but this voltage is not being passed to the battery plug socket. So my question, does a faulty IC stop the voltage from going to the battery Socket? What else could be wrong? What else can I check and how?

The phone does not switch on, could it be the on button? How do I check?

Unplug the screen and check if power is going through to the battery socket.

There are some rare cases where a damaged LCD cable causes the board to short and not allow it to charge which usually happens when an iPhone 5C is dropped and the top right of the screen pops up which usually tears the display cable.

> does a faulty IC stop the voltage from going to the battery Socket?

Yes. The one in question is the U2 Tristar Charging IC.

For example I have a iPhone 5S with charging IC bad. With a charged battery it will turn on no problems. Just will not charge even when trying multiple charging ports.

Thank you Ben. I took the screen off. Now I am getting some reading but not what is should be. I figured out that the ground on the battery socket is pin furthest away from speaker. The reading I'm getting is ground to middle pin is 0.06V and ground to pin nearest to speaker is 0V. Before taking screen off I was getting 0V everywhere.

And I am getting the same readings with the new charging port cable and with the old charging port cable...

To be fair, as I've mentioned in my answer if you plug in a cable in to a iPhone that has no battery connected, and it doesn't come up with the Apple logo but powers on with a known working battery, then you're usually looking at tristar damage.

(iPhone 6/6 Plus and below work with this method, 6S and 6S Plus don't show Apple logo with battery unplugged.)

This is of course once you have ruled out a bad charging port (which takes a few seconds)

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